Azula
Azula watched from the airship as Ozai lost control of his emotions, it was in times like these that Azula could see the resemblance between her father and Zuko, there was a big difference though, Ozai was far more dangerous when angry than when he is calm. Like many other firebenders (including Azula herself) Ozai's fire got stronger the angrier he got and Azula was watching firsthand just how strong her father truly was. The rocks Bumi was throwing around were easily dealt with leaving them as nothing more than molten rock on the ground, sometimes the old king tried to send some of the still smoldering wrecks left behind Ozai's way but her father just answered the aggression with more fire.
Bumi did a countercharge the earth momentarily looked like the ocean as a wave of dirt formed behind the now-armored Bumi, then he let go and just like a real wave the one Bumi made came crashing down on her father. Ozai barely blinked at the monumental amount of rock that was about to fall on him and in response, a lighting bolt materialized in his hands. Her father timed his attack perfectly, letting the lightning go at just the right time to make a hole that would let him pass without injury, Bumi tried to kill him while he crossed the opening but barely managed to cut her father's leg before Ozai passed the now spiky hole fist first with fire on his hands.
Azula watched as Bumi moved through the attacks, his body distorting in ways that even Ty Lee would find difficult to do. The king bent as if his spine was nothing but air as he made himself as flat as possible on the ground before jumping in a cartwheel to pass through another attack and all the while Bumi tried to make Ozai move back to the center of the gates, it was mildly suspicious but a fight inside the city would be more unpredictable for them and if Bumi was having trouble hitting Ozai right now then it would be harder to land a hit when Ozai had the buildings around him as cover. The old king then transformed the ground into tiles and used it as projectiles making her father stop his attack
It was impressive, more than she would like to admit, Azula didn't think that she could defeat the old man in a fair fight but luckily for Azula, there was no such thing as a fair fight. The fight continues just like before but there was a sudden change that caught her off guard after a particularly narrow escape in which Bumi dropped to the ground she noticed something. The movements weren't only faster but now she was sure that Ty Lee couldn't copy what the old king was doing but that should be impossible…unless…unless the king wasn't actually there. Azula didn't take more than five seconds to come to that conclusion but before she could tell her father that he was fightinging a pile of rocks the earth opened up.
Azula had seen eartbenders fight before, but this was something approaching what the Avatar could do, a giant hole appeared below her father, it was so wide that there was no possibility of his hands touching the edge of the thing even if he used a burst of fire to propel himself, the gaping maw of darkness that was left behind was a reminder that sometimes nightmares are real and for the first time in her life Azula saw fear reflected in the eyes of her father. Bumi emerged from the ground dripping sweat but with a very pleased grin on his face that was taunting Azula as she watched her father disappear into the abyss below.
More erathbenders appeared and she knew that they were the true culprits of what had happened and since they had broken their agreements then Azula needed to make them pay and she needed to do it quickly or otherwise her father would be buried alive.
"Attack!" Azula didn't hesitate in giving the order just as she charged a lightning bolt of her own in her hands, while she did so the rest of the airships moved, Azula told her suspicions to the captains and they agreed with her after some coercion so they didn't waste any time in firing back, most of the earthbenders dodged but a few brave fools gave their lives to start closing the hole, king Bumi was sadly not among them.
The princess didn't even aim as she attacked since she only needed to buy enough time for her father to get out of the hole he had been thrown into, the airship closest to the hole extended down its ladder to try and get Ozai back on the surface but their careless approach soon was taken advantage of by Bumi who climbed aboard the airship along with another four erthbenders.
"Ram that ship!" Azula shouted at the captain of her ship while throwing more lighting, she wouldn't be able to do it forever but as long as she kept the earthbenders moving then it would all be worth it.
"But princess if we ram it we could drop the whole thing into the hole and on top of the Fire Lord!" if she didn't need the man then Azula might have killed him the instant he opened his mouth to talk but sadly she didn't know hot to operate one of these machines on her own. "We shouldn't risk it"
"If you want to face king Bumi head-on be my guest but if you don't interrupt him long enough for me to get my father out of that hole then your family will pay the price!"
The captain had a look of horror on his face and after frowning he finally started moving the ship as she ordered him to "Everyone this is the captain speaking! We're about to crash everyone brace yourselves and hold onto something!"
From the ground, multiple spikes arched toward the airship but no matter how much they tried to stop the movement of the ship it kept going forward Azula felt like she was about to fall everytime it came to a sudden halt only to push froward again but she noticed something going on below her, more earthbenders started popping out from the ground like rats and started closing the hole not as they had before but by throwing rocks inside of it, for a second Azula thought that it was over that her plans would all end here but from the darkness a spark of light came out.
Ozai was still alive at the bottom of the hole and he was still strong enough to break through the rocks they were sending at him! "Release the bombs!"
The captain obeyed immediately and Azula felt the weight of the airship shift as it delivered the payload, the explosions below felt like dawn was coming again but Azula didn't allow herself to be distracted king Bumi was now vulnerable on the ship, he couldn't reach the earth as fast as Azula could throw fire but she hadn't made it so far just to die at the end.
"Guards! Come with me we're boarding the ship!" Azula screamed out at the men that were guarding the control room before jumping towards the railing and propelling herself upwards, once she was on top of the ship Azula gathered what would be one of her last lightingbolts for the day and aimed it directly at the bombs on the rear of the ship. Azula didn't know in what part of the ship the old man was but if he wasn't at the front of the ship he would soon be… that or he was dead but even if she was born lucky Azula wasn't about to get her hopes up.
"Princess!" the squad of guards finally caught up to her and Azula had to admit that she liked their speed, if she managed to get her father back she would have these men assigned to her.
"Let's hurry before the ship decides that it doesn't want to stay stable" Azula ran fearlessly towards the boarded airship that was starting to burn as its 'tail' dipped down.
As soon as they all landed on the now-enemy airship they made their way to the control center, Azula needed to steer the ship to the side so another could take its place not to mention that if the earth kingdom savages figured out how to drop the bombs her father would die.
Just as she had feared they found themselves face to face with the group of earthbenders that had boarded the ship minus Bumi. The soldiers of Omashu were pokcing and prodding at the buttons and Azula didn't need Azula didn't need to think it twice before she attacked cutting down the first man that she saw with a fire whip, her soldiers followed the example set by Azula and they started harassing them with whips of their own soon there was only man standing and he was only still alive because all the rocks that the rest had been using to protect themselves were now at his disposal but against the combined firepower of Azula he stood no chance and with a vicious thrust of her arm flames jumped from her hand engulfing the man whole as they burned him to the bone.
The soldiers did a little cheer at that while Azula smirked, that smirk soon disappeared though as a resounding 'clak' could be heard around the control room.
Clack!
Clack!
"What is that?" one of the guards asked as he looked around the place for the source of the sound, for several seconds the noise persisted as he moved until it was almost on top of them.
Clack!
Clack!
Clack
The sound stopped and the fool that had been searching for the source of the noise pushed his head out from one of the windows, then he was gone, the man was pulled from the window and then thrown into the hole where her father was Azula watched as the falling man was intercepted by a blast of lighting that sent his body in different directions as it cut him in half. Then she turned around to see the face of Bumi, the old man was upside down or at least his face was and he didn't look happy at all.
"I think you got the wrong idea guys, I'm not trapped in this flaming wreck with you, you're trapped in this place with me!"
Then he disappeared but this time there was no sound to signify where he had gone and Azula felt something that was only reserved for her father.
Fear.
Author note: finally on time, so this is going to be shameless self promotion because things have gone to hell with a situation at home and if i'm honest with you i want this (not this story but fanfiction) to be my main source of income which is honestly going well, more or less so i'm going to do my best to make it happen. so i will leave my below like always but this time i also will be leaving my Ko-Fi! you may be wondering why and the answer is simple i'm offering up a chapter about the story White Lies that has run out of chapter and while i can't offer early acces to it thanks to 's rules and Ko-Fi's rules (damn censorship) i can tell you here that if i get collectively ten dollars then i will start writting the next chapter and once i have the ten dollars it will take me no more than 24 hours to post it on QQ (maybe less, i'm just giving myself that time limit so i can schedule my life around)
As always i hope you guys are doin great and that you enjoy the chapter see you next time.
